Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Religious hate law - Blair loses by 288 votes to 278

The House of Lords voted Oct. 25 to back amendments to the legislation introduced by a former head of the Church of England. They included moves to implement freedom of speech safeguards. Blair today asked lawmakers to reverse these watering-down moves, and, in the second of a series of votes on the amendments, they defeated him 288-278.
After then losing a second vote by one, Home Secretary Charles Clarke accepted defeat and backed down.